Spoiling Lily

This Fall, we learned that the couple who runs the open mic night on Wednesdays were having a baby. As soon as I found this out, I was ready to make things. It didn't quiet help that I had baby fever and was itching to make things with no one to make things for. It certainly solved my problem. They were having a little girl and she has since been born.

Here are some of the things that I made for Lily (the baby).

 I happened along a design for a Circle Baby Blanket. I just love the swirl! It was a quick work up but I didn't happen to write it down. It came along by accident but I am certainly happy with the results! I wasn't sure what to do for the edging, so I decided to use some really soft, fluffy yarn (Bernat Pipsqueak) for the border in single crochet.

 I also made a hat, though I'm not sure where the pattern for that is. When I find where I got it from, I will update with a link. I know that it is called Granny Beanie. Again, I used the super soft, fluffy baby yarn to border the hat. So cute!

 A pair of baby shoes, in a soft cream. I was going to add lady bug buttons but it didn't quite go with the theme that seemed to be taking place.

 My first attempt at baby clothes! This was a pattern that I found at JoAnn's. One of the free ones that you can take home. It was called "Flutterby Baby Vest". I have tried to find it online for you, but I haven't had any luck. Again, I'm sorry that I cannot provide a link to the pattern. But, your craft stores are wonderful places for free patterns!

And yet another accidental pattern, as well as one that I can't link to nor did I write down. These booties are too stink'n cute! I love the little fur toppers!

When we gave these to the mother, she told me that she was afraid that she wouldn't have anything like this to pass down to her kids. Her grandmother who would make stuff like this had passed away. I felt so blessed to be a blessing to her, her husband and little Lily.

What baby things do you like to make or see made?

Please remember that you are beautiful and well loved!

Wrapped in Love (C2C) Finished!

And now...For the moment I have been waiting for...It is finished! Well, it doesn't have a border yet but the main part is finished and I don't always like adding borders to blankets. I will probably add one, but for the moment, it is fine.

I just published the pattern to my Ravelry Store. If you use the coupon code: ILY4EVER you can get this pattern for free, until the end of June 1 (my wedding anniversary).

This pattern was tough to write. Mostly because I made a graph (yes, it has a graph! For those of you who have my Boston Red Sox Blanket pattern, I'm going to work on graphing that one too) in Excell and spent at least three hours trying to figure out how to merge it to a word document. Now that I did that the first page is blank. Yes, the first page is blank but do not worry! You aren't missing out on any information! Apparently when I tried to have only the chart page landscaped, Word decided that adding a polar bear lost in a snow storm, would be a great idea. Lovely.

So, once I figure out how to do that, which I though I had it figured out and then I sent it to PDF...poor polar bear is still lost in a snow storm, I will post a pattern update.

This pattern is very dear to my heart. I minored in American Sign Language, in college and got to know some really cool people who use ASL. This sign is one of the ways that I can communicate to my husband (who is not deaf or hard of hearing) when we are in a room full of people, after I have a seizure or just because.

I think that this pattern does well with just two colors, but I'm wondering how it would look with either the background or the hand striped. It came out to be a 49"x46" blanket. So, big enough for a child or just as a couch throw.

Check out the pattern and let me know what you think in the comments below!
Also, check out some of my other patterns and posts!

Remember that you are beautiful and well loved!

Wedding Blanket- Finished!

Hey, there! I am so excited because I have been working on a blanket for someone who is getting married this year and I finally finished it. Seriously, I wove in the last end maybe fifteen minutes ago! I bought this pattern back in September,for $5. Nancy Liggins (I am in no way affiliated with her or her patterns) has many designs in her Ravelry shop and I have seen some of her blankets published on Mary Maxim. She is going places and isn't hard to see why. Her patterns are easy to follow. They are mostly charts, but she provides the number of stitches needed between the clusters.  I'm glad that I chose this pattern because I was really struggling with clusters/bobbles/popcorn stitches and after a couple months of doing them, I can do them quickly and without hurting my wrist!

I am wanting some of her other patterns but I'm also trying to focus more on some of my other unfinished projects (stuffed dino, playbook, three blankets and probably more to come) as well as my own pattern writing.

Speaking of pattern writing, I did write a Free pattern for a Holey-Moley Washcloth. That you could check out.

Feel free to leave comments, I do enjoy hearing from you. What projects have you recently finsished? Which ones are you working on?

Also, check out my other posts!

Please remember that you are beautiful and well loved.

Afghan Swap 2015: The Final Box

As some of you know, I have been taking part in a year round, afghan swap. In this swap, there are three packages: two smaller and the final on has the afghan. The first one was sent out in April, then August and finally December. I have throurghly enjoyed participating and hope to take part in the next years.

My final package left me spoiled:

 I received two, beautiful circle blankets!

 Many goodies: Two bags of butterscotch candies (my favorite), hot chocolate, Peanut Butter Cup Tea (yum!), Sherlock Holmes book (My CSI hero), an engraving art kit, dry erase board, X-men DVD (Not sure how she knew of my secret Marvel love or my love for Hugh Jackman...) and not pictured a set of beautiful blue coasters.

 There were four blanket patterns, a recipie for pie and one for ham.

 Four skeins of yarn. They are so soft and I have many ideas for these I just have to pick the right ones.

 A clever, reversible hat.

 Beautiful, beaded stitch markers

 And two crochet magazines! One is Crochet Accessories (which I will be making several thing in the near future) and the other is a Crochet magazine, which teaches the enterlac crochet which I have been so curious about. I am excited and forever thankful!

Thank you, Bonnie for spoiling me, all year. It has been such a blessing to get to know you and find things for you as well. Your patience with me was unimaginable. I know I have a history of unending questions and this was my first swap. Thank you, for being part of such a wonderful year.

Remember that you are beautiful and well loved

Let's Go, Red Sox! Finally!

It is finally finished! I have been working on designing a Boston Red Sox blanket for my husband who is a huge fan of the team. I started designing it in February and just finished the complete pattern and blanket, today.

It started out as just an idea. I had only designed a couple of hats and scarves at that point and I was just playing around with ideas. I bought some graph paper and made multiple sketches of the logo's. I decided on this one, a larger version of it and started actually writing the pattern from the graph paper.

The digital download will not have the graph, mostly because I'm not super great with technology to make 146 boxes on a page. But all of the directions will be written out.

I don't know how I feel about the border. It is a puff stitch, which I thought of because it looked kind of like balls and this is a baseball team. Jerad has only put the blanket down (because I can't wait until Christmas to give people their gifts), to fix some delicious food.

What do you think of the blanket? Be honest, please.
What is your design process?

Feel free to let me know in the comments below, and check out my other posts!

Remember that you are beautiful and well loved

To Make A Hole, You Must Start Digging

After a couple of slight panic attacks over Christmas, which isn't for another couple of months, and writing a list of gifts to make (which can be found in my earlier post, Dear Santa, May I Borrow Some Elves?) I have begun to make somewhat of a dent.

So far I have made 2/10 Scarves. I am in the middle of designing a third.

I used a basic Double Crochet stitch for one scarf:

and I used the "Strawberry Wine Cable Scarf" Pattern for the second:

I also made a couple of colorful headbands with some yarn gifted to me by Nina:

The yarn is 50% Soy Silk and 50% wool. South West Trading Company, Karaoke-299
 I also used the Double Shell Headband Pattern, which is a free pattern, for these two.
I absolutely loved the yarn for this and I'm going to look into getting more yarn. The Soy Silk tones down the wool's scratchiness. Wool doesn't usually make me itch but some wools do seem a little rough. This one is so soft and smooth, I wish you could feel it through the screen!

I am about 40 rows away from being finished with a blanket that I have been working on for a while. My goal is to have that finished by the end of this month. To do that, I want to try to crochet at least 5 rows a day (starting tomorrow because I work all day today). If I kept to this, I should have it finished by the 25th of September. Then I could concentrate on finishing the design for the hubby's blanket and the rest of the smaller projects.

The scarves will only take me a couple hours each, if I use patterns that I already have, and stop designing new ones. The shawls will take a little longer. Which, I started on one shawl and I'm really loving the pattern. I will make a new post about that, since this one is already stuffed with pictures. 

So, right now, I am working on  a new scarf design, a shawl, and a blanket. I want to finish this scarf and another scarf before I switch over to hats. 

Please remember that you are beautiful and well loved. 

Dear Santa, May I Borrow Some Elves?

I finally sat down (during a lunch break) and wrote down a list of projects that I need to start and complete before Christmas comes around. Yes, it is only September but I'm sure all you crafters know just how long it takes to make something special for someone. I glanced at my list, today and I'm starting to wish that I hadn't written everything out.

So far (I usually end up adding things) I have:

Two afghans- one is for a swap and needs to be finished by December 1st, I'm about halfway finished; the other is still in the process of having the pattern written. Eighty rows are written, still have about 108 rows more.

A "Stitch" hat for my neice.

Ten winter hats

Three Earwarmers

Three Shawls

Six ornaments

Ten scarves

Nine potholders

Four dishcloths

and possibly a third blanket but I'm not sure I'll have that much time.

Since I have started crocheting, one person has received a blanket each year. The first year it was my dad and step mom, the second was my mother in law, this year it will be my husband and I'm thinking next year will be my brother in law, once I figure out what he likes. Now that he is in high school, I don't know if he still wants the Star Wars things or if he wants things to be  a little more grown up.

Which makes it difficult for this Christmas, for him. Last year I made him a "Creeper" scarf from Minecraft. Last year he was in middle school. This year, he is in high school and I'm not sure what he wants.

Out of all the projects that I need to do, I have the blanket for my afghan swap started and...yeah, just that. Well, I may have one scarf and an earwarmer finished...depending on if I want to give away my prototypes of the Strawberry Wine patterns.

Every year, my list gets longer. I'm just going to have to start crocheting for Christmas 365 days ahead of time.

In all of the chaos, remember: You are beautiful and well loved.
 

Christmas is Just Around the Corner...

I was on Ravelry.com, today, and sifting through the groups that I am in. I ventured into this new Christmas Crochet group that I recently joined and had a sudden realization that we are in the middle of August. Yep! That is right we are in the middle of the eighth month and December is only four months away. I am working on two blankets, one I keep frogging (ripping the stitches) and the other I'm thinking about it. The thing is, it takes me about 6 months to make one with as busy as I get with work.

Part of the freak out began when I realized I have four months to make two blankets. That is two less months than what I have for one. I can see every waking moment from here on out going to Christmas presents. Which is sad because Halloween and Thanksgiving are also coming up and I wanted to make things for those holidays as well.

The freak out didn't take full effect until I realized that for the past two Christmases (which are the two that I actually knew how to crochet), most people recieved a scarf and hat set; if they did not recieve a blanket. Now, my family/friends are loving people but I'm sure that I might get a little bit of an eye roll or fake excitement over, yet, another scarf.

This realization and complete understanding of the possible reaction leaves me in a more than slight panic that goes something like this:

"I have four months until Christmas! I have to make two blankets (which I don't mind and love doing), and I have absolutely no ideas for anyone on the Christmas list because they all have at least one scarf and hat!"

Now, imagine me running around in circles in my tiny living room with Sasha, our dog, wondering if her paws would be able to actually push the buttons on the phone to dial some sort of crochet anonymous hotline.

So, here is my question to you:

What are some gifts that you make for people on your Christmas list? Please leave your ideas in the comments below.

Remember that you are beautiful and well loved.

I've been working on a pattern!

Have you ever had that moment when you know exactly what you want to make for someone and you spend hours searching for the pattern that matches the picture in your head, only to reach the horrible conclusion that no one has made a pattern for it yet? I most certainly have. From potholder designs to shawls to blankets. I have a picture in my head of what I want to make and no pattern to go off of.

I have been thinking of writing my own patterns ever since I started to crochet, back in 2013. I never have because I wasn't comfortable with knowing what stitches to use and all that good stuff. Now, that I know a lot of stitches and have crocheted enough that I think I have grasped the concepts of a good design, I'm going to try my hand at it.

The pattern that I am writing, right now is one that I have spent months trying to find on the internet and in craft stores. My husband is a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox, baseball team. I know, I know, but to each their own. Me? I'm an Arizona Cardinals fan but I don't even think they are in the same league. All judgement aside, I decided that I wanted to crochet him an afghan for Christmas. Yes, I am aware that it is only June but it takes me a few months to make a blanket. I have two that I need to make right now.

I couldn't find a pattern for the Red Sox, anything, anywhere. It was difficult enough finding a hat for him, last year. Which my Aunt Amy got him and he loves! So, I decided to make a pattern. It took me a couple of days to actually draw out the pattern and then I transfered it to graph paper (difficult to find the amount of squares I needed). Now, I am working on the blanket and writing out the pattern as I go. So far, I'm on row 22 but I'm not even a quarter of the way yet.

I'm not sure how long it is going to take to write the pattern. Probably as long as it is going to take to make the blanket. I am really enjoying writing the pattern and I think that I will write more after this. I am also thinking of selling my patterns on Ravelry and possibly Etsy. I wouldn't sell them for much but it would be a great way to keep my yarn stash growing so that I can create new patterns.

What is your method of pattern writing, if you have written one?
What is your favorite pattern (it doesn't have to be yours)?
Feel free to let me know in the comments below! Also check out some of my other posts!

Remember, you are beautiful and well loved.